Hey, it's me, Richard Preston (gnarl).
My long article about climbing in the coast redwoods with Steve Sillett & colleagues, "CLIMBING THE REDWOODS," is coming out in The New Yorker magazine this Monday (Feb. 7). (Cover date Feb.14-21. Cover has a picture of that buff chap in a top hat and monocle--the famous Eustace Tilley). The article describes the wonders of the redwood forest canopy, it profiles Sillett and his spouse Marie Antoine, and it talks about how I learned how to climb trees (in Atlanta at TCI).
I owe very special thanks to Tim Kovar (Tengu) and to Peter Jenkins. Tengu trained me. As many people in the tree-climbing community know, Tim is a talented instructor. He is also a gentle human being with a spirtual dimension and a deep connection to nature, and he is a close friend; I discussed the article and shared some of my deepest thoughts with him while I was writing it. Peter Jenkins provided a lot of encouragement, and I think he recently spent quite a lot of time on the phone with The New Yorker's fact-checking department (straightening out my facts). (Any screw-ups of fact in this article are strictly my own, not Peter's.)
I'm currently at work on a book about climbing giant trees, _title_ undecided. My previous books, like The Hot Zone, have been about scary viruses. But nobody bleeds out of their orifices in "CLIMBING THE REDWOODS"!
Hope you like the article. Let me know what you think anyway.
Richard Preston (gnarl)

That was a most informative article that everyone should read. However, I take issue when you describe a ninja climb (climbing without permission) as “poaching.” Is there an error here with word usage? Please read the thread “Ninja climbing portrayed as poaching” in the general discussion section.